Jack's Alternative Road to Paris

Far be it from me to speak for my riding companions…

One such companion has decided to give us the story of his Road to Paris. When I first began this blog, I opened up the floor to anyone who wanted to contribute and he has taken me up on that offer. I'd advise reading Sunday's post first.

So here you go: Jack’s Alternative Road to Paris, or “Heavy Hangs the Ham”.

“It is hard to know where to start with my Road to Paris; and whether this is an important mile stone for me is debatable. But let’s say it is though: maybe even more so for me than for Alice with her dangerously small (but really large) step into the pocket-emptying, energy-stripping, wormhole that is cycling.

The Road to Paris: Part One

A while ago, two friends of mine decided that they would run the Paris Marathon. Deciding that it would be fun to spend the weekend in Paris and give them some support on their road-bashing around the streets of the French capital, my friends and I decided to go along too. As it turns out, only one of the pair (Fred) will run the marathon, with the other (Simon), having dropped out due to a knee injury, now joining the rest of us in a purely touristic/cheerleading capacity. 

Now, I have many friends who cycle and are quite happy to punish themselves on roads across the planet astride a bike. My friend Alice, however, is not one of them. I mean her no disrespect by this – it’s just that she isn’t a cyclist. Her most common interaction with cycling of any kind was, until recently, some commuting in London on Boris Bikes. You know the ones: built like tanks, Barclays-liveried, conveyors of tourists. Alice rowed for much of her time at university so she doesn’t have weak legs, but she is the last person who I would expect to dip their toes into the world of cycling, especially given her derision of various pieces of my outlandish cycling attire.

Narrative: The tension between Statistics and Romance

This Sunday, Arsenal lost 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur. In this season and the last, the results have been exactly the same. Arsenal beat Spurs 5-2 at home, and Spurs won 2-1 at White Hart Lane. Cumulatively, the score is 12-8 to Arsenal. Many arguments have been made by Spurs fans that the balance of power has shifted in north London, or that the pendulum has swung in favour of a Spurs team who have improved somewhat under the management of Andre Villas Boas.

Voices in the crowd: Vaughters and Wenger

Since the early hours of Thursday morning and the last instalment of Bleeding Edge, some smarter than average bears have had their say. Arsene Wenger and Jonathan Vaughters are two of the more interesting and insightful voices in football and cycling respectively and equally forward thinking in their approaches to team management. The point that both unifies and sets them apart from their peers is their willingness to speak out with little regard for the way the wind is blowing.

Australian Sport's Blackest Day: Instructive.

The sky is falling in Australian sport. The peptide raindrops are flooding the fields of the Australian Football League and the dark water is running over the parched ground, doubtless leaving few sports in the dry. Indeed, it may only be a matter of time before the same level of doping is revealed in sport in the UK.

Fingers in the socket.

Meanwhile, in the sparkly clean world of cycling….

You've got to start somewhere...

… so this seems as good a place as any.

Let’s begin with a little bit of autobiography shall we?